This invention relates to the processing of tobacco material, and in particular to the separation or delamination of compacted tobacco material.
During the processing steps of tobacco, tobacco leaves or strips are stored and handled in dry, compacted masses. For example, tobacco material generally arrives at primary processing areas from storage in the form of tersa bales, turkish bales or offshore boxes (i.e., having a generally rectangular cross section) or as hogsheads (i.e., having a generally circular cross section). Although the compacting of tobacco material provides for convenient and efficient storage and handling, such tobacco material is difficult to handle in later processing stages.
The separation of compacted tobacco material is necessary in order that further processing steps can be performed. However, compacted tobacco material can become brittle and can readily degrade into fine particles when the bales, boxes or hogsheads are opened and separation of the tobacco material is attempted.
The separation of compacted tobacco material has involved conditioning of the material in order to provide a moist and flexible material. Generally, the conditioning of a compacted tobacco mass is accomplished through the use of steam and/or water. For example, steam can be applied to the compacted mass through the use of a penetrating probe or vacuum in order to promote penetration thereof into compacted mass. Representative methods for steam conditioning a tobacco mass are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,383,538 to Beard et al. However, steam treatment of compacted tobacco material requires controlled processing steps which can prove cumbersome to perform. In addition, careful control of the processing steps are required in order to provide an evenly conditioned tobacco mass. For example, steam treatment often provides unevenly conditioned material thus causing the formation of pads or clumps of tobacco mass.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,600,024 to Edwards proposes a process whereby packed or compacted tobacco leaves are subjected to microwave radiation in order to provide ready separation of the compacted mass. However, microwave treatment of tobacco can be expensive, requiring multiple frequency generators. In addition, cumbersome shielding steps need to be taken in order to minimize or prevent escaping microwave radiation from the system. Furthermore, in certain situations, the microwave radiation may have a limited depth of penetration into a compacted tobacco mass.
It would be highly desirable to provide a method for efficiently and effectively separating compacted tobacco material or compacted tobacco masses.